WSI in the Community #WeChallengeYou

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

– Vincent Van Gogh

As business owners, we have always wanted to try and contribute to worthy causes when we could. We have said for years, “When cash flow improves,” or “When we get that big contract”. The problem lies in that that day never (or very rarely) actually materialises. You are left with a feeling of wanting to help, but feeling that you cannot make a large enough financial contribution to make a difference to any organisation.

A few months ago, Karen Brokensha from iThemba Lethu in Durban sent out a call for people to help them make sandwiches for their Holiday Club – 700 children over 3 days. That is rather a lot of sandwiches! They had most of the ingredients, they just needed willing hands to make them.

This is when we reached a vital realisation that many NPO’s and charities are in need of volunteers and helpers as often as they are in need of direct financial help. We also realised that many small donations joined together can bring fruition to a larger goal. So we challenged another Digital Agency to a sandwich making contest. We had a fun morning as a team cranking out sarmies for the kids (340 sandwiches in 1 hour from Team WSI), got to have some competitive fun and helped out iThemba Lethu at the same time. That was our first Team WSI #WeChallengeYou

We now aim to have one #WeChallengeYou goal or project per month. In July for Mandela Day, we went to HOLAH (House of Love and Hope) Baby House to create a tyre garden for them. All of the materials were donated by various clients of WSI. Our most recent project was collecting items for the Robin Hood Foundation’s Poise & Pride Campaign for Women’s Month. We challenged our clients, connections and all of the businesses in our office park to donate toiletries and sanitary products for 160 young women from the Shongweni Valley. We went and packed the goodie bags and then attended the event to help distribute them. It was a privilege to be part of such an amazing and humbling event.

In November 2016 we hassled and hustled our way to  12 shoeboxes for Santa’s Shoebox for the Pinetown/Gillitts region. We also went as a team to helpcheck, pack, rewrap and sort through the thousands of boxes. The region reached ats target again, and we will be back in 2017 for the vital project.

February 2017 saw us at CROW, getting down and dirty for some furry critters. CROW needed their enclosure for their bushpigs modified and WSI answered the call. After a morning digging trenches and throwing rocks (not at people), we were quite filthy and very pleased with ourselves.

If you are a small business owner, why not start your own #WeChallengeYou project? Find a local charity or NGO that needs some volunteer work done and see what troops you can rally to make that happen. Everyone benefits – the community can see that businesses are invested in helping others, charities can gain from skilled volunteers and your business can get its brand out there. Also remember to tell us about it on social media using the hashtag #WeChallangeYou so we can share and celebrate in your actions!

At WSI we firmly believe that ideas elevate humanity – why not let your small charitable ideas elevate your community?

Make Child Poverty History

We are also proud of our parent company’s work with Make Child Poverty History (MCPH). The MCPH organization is an ongoing global program that mobilizes resources and brings together individuals and organizations in an effort to eradicate child poverty. The initiative began when WSI board members decided it was time to take more active steps to end child poverty on a global scale.